Declare War Against Internet Use

The internet is perhaps the best gift to have been bestowed upon the modern world. But, as was with the case with Pandora, the box in which the gift of the internet came unleashed unique sets of problems. Here are a few mentions: 

1. Internet addiction,
2. Pseudo-connectivity, 
3. Information overload. 

However, it is worthy to note: the problem with the internet isn’t so much the sources of difficulty served by its presence. The problem is that it hijacks our faculty of volition, especially at the times when we need this faculty the most. It elevates its role as servant to one of master, living us, for the most part, to unwillingly serve in roles we are better off doing without. So that when it comes to mustering the effort needed to bring ourselves out of its influence we are left without the will to exert change. 

Say, for example, you have a business-review report to write. It’s due in two days, and the responsibility to deliver quality weighs heavy. You need all the intrinsic resources at your disposal - time, attention, willpower. But there is one problem: A Whatsapp group in which you are a member is abuzz with a hot topic - Who wore that Versace red dress better, Rihanna or Beyoncé? This tugs against the boundaries of your mind. Of course Beyoncé wore it better and the group will have to get a piece of your mind. The Whatsapp back and forth ensues for much of day one. And by day two YouTube videos of cute cats gets the better share of your time allocated for writing a quality report. In the end you write the report, but the effort to raise it up to an appreciable quality is halted by a demand for its submission. 

One tempting approach, after we have felt the pang of defeat from being wrestled out of our volition by a ‘mindless’ device, is to cut access to the internet all together. To swear that we will never use the internet again, especially not for 'unremarkable' activities. But this resolution is bound to fail. A lot of useful resources reside within the internet, and we will need to access them. (In fact, our minds will use these useful bits as pull to get us back to using the internet.) A better route is making peace with using the internet, for it offers a great deal of usefulness. But to do so with a care alive to only directing use of the service towards how best it delivers positive returns. Here are an arsenal of rules to help: 

1. Set Specific Times For Internet Use. 

Specific is the chief word here. It might be tempting to deploy an ad hoc approach to using the internet. To declare a resolution along the line of I will turn on the internet when I need it and turn it off when I don't. This temptation carries weight because we tend to operate under the delusion that we have a limitless reserve of willpower. Once we recognize this delusion it is easy to see how fruitless an ad hoc approach can be. 

Specific times for internet use help in lifting the burden of decision making. Outside the time allocated for internet use, the call to fall into (needless) internet demands is a clear no. This frees up intrinsic resources like time, attention and willpower for more meaningful pursuits, and allows that come time for internet use we are deriving the best possible utility offered by the service. 

2. Expect to Fail. 

Some days will be better off than others in this declaration of war against internet use. On days when falling off the self-imposed requirement for internet use is the route we find ourselves it can be easy to sink into moments of despair and to become trapped in self-directed monologue spelling out our inability to stick to simple habits. Be kind. Know that breaking off powerful pull of the internet is bound to be met with resistance, and failure to move past the resistance at unexpected moments is to be expected. 

3. Use an iPhone. 

This isn’t a which-phone-is-better debate. But as noted by Cal Newport, bestselling author of Deep Work, and pioneer of the importance of quitting social media, iPhones aren’t designed to be addictive. And this can be tested through the iPhone option that allows for the termination of internet access to specific apps. Simply put: iPhones ease our masterhood in the phone-user relationship. 

4. Keep an Internet-To-do List 

One of the interesting things about the internet is there is always something to do on it. And the mind is remarkably adept at pouring forth a plethora of options of internet-things to be done: Go on Skillshare to learn Python, Edit the HTML code on blogger, Go look for Chimamanda's latest interview - and check out her shoe. The problem, of course, isn't the availability of these options. The problem is that it is easy to get sidetracked and that it is easy to remain blind to this ease in relation to steering off unproductive use of the internet. 

A list to hold internet dependent ideas dampens the reactive approach to responding to internet demands. It keeps us within control, ensuring our response to demands thrown our way is of a proactive kind. 

To conclude: The list of rules presented above is by no means exhaustive. It is a collection of suggestions designed to aid efforts at becoming grounded in an involvement that is becoming increasingly important to anyone interested in creating anything of value, remarkable things. We can take our last bit of knowledge from an unlikely source. In his bestselling book, How to Think More About Sex, swiss philosopher, Alain de Botton, leaves us with a sentence that encapsulates our place in relation to the internet. He writes: "The entire internet is in a sense pornographic, a deliverer of a constant excitement that we have no innate capacity to resist, a seducer that leads us down paths that for the most part do nothing to answer our real needs." In this light, it is left for us to do everything in our power to unplug from the constant excitement, to enable ourselves become devotees to fulfilling our real needs - even if it means declaring war against an ostensibly indifferent service.

Enjoy!

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Post Author: P. W. Uduk 
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Photo Sources: healthculturesociety2015.wikispaces.com;

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